The specific aims of this study are to: 1) determine which patient safety practices, within the context of other organizational and structural characteristics, correlate with patient outcomes in acute care hospitals; and 2) compare differences in patient safety practices among acute care hospitals to understand the relationship of patient safety to patient outcomes. [unreadable] [unreadable] Various structural and organizational factors have been shown to correlate with patient outcomes, to include teaching status, ownership status, procedural volume, nurse staffing and work environment. Recent changes to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare (JCAHO) standards further require that hospital leaders create a culture of patient safety, implement patient safety programs and prevent medical error through retrospective and prospective analysis, to include the redesign of vulnerable systems (JCAHO, 2001). Beyond mandating the implementation of patient safety practices, however, the effect that such safety practices have had on patient outcomes has not been well studied. Several safety practices with longstanding success outside of medicine possess a weak evidentiary base in the healthcare literature (AHRQ, 2001). [unreadable] [unreadable] With the increasing emphasis on patient safety it becomes even more important to determine if differences in mortality, complications, and other adverse events among institutions are reflective of differences in patient safety practices. Understanding the relationship between patient safety and patient outcomes will provide evidence regarding which organizational factors, to include patient safety practices, are the best determinants of patient outcomes. [unreadable] [unreadable]